I wish to see the federal government concentrate discretionary spending in three vital areas besides defense: education, infrastructure and research and development.

They are all job creators. On the other hand, we are stuck with entitlements. We have paid for them our entire working lives, and Americans are not about to give them up.

Nevertheless, there is fear in the medical community that additional cuts in Medicare will make it impossible for some medical practices to keep the doors open. There are also predictions that by the end of this decade, we will be short more than 90,000 physicians as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

In another development designed to more accurately reflect the growth of Social Security, a modification by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to apply math called chain-weighting will slow the climb in the Consumer Price Index. CPI is the most common measure of inflation and is used by the government to determine annual cost of living increases.

Those year-over-year changes are applicable to other government payouts, as well. Republicans are pushing this. It’s not sleight of hand; gross domestic product has been measured that way for several years.

I wish kids were learning more in college. They need practical skills useful to employers, including the ability to write a literate sentence. Fewer Ph.D.s need to be teaching economics and business subjects. I think there is too much theory in these subjects at the introductory level, particularly economics.

There should be more faculty with practical experience, who know what students need in the real world.

In recent years, commentators have tended to denigrate the humanities. That is a mistake.

There is something essential and eminently attractive about a well-rounded student possessing a classic education.

Success in the classroom will open doors, and on-the-job training will provide the specific education a student needs to prosper in many career fields.

One place the federal and state governments can directly help create private-sector jobs is infrastructure spending.

Even our founders recognized the need for ‘internal improvements’ as a mechanism to facilitate growth.

Much more than make-work, adequate infrastructure is critical to economic development, whether it is spending on roads and bridges, airports, seaports or broadband.

Neglect in this critical area will lead to lagging productivity, missed opportunities and shrinking tax revenues.

According to R&D Magazine, research and development grants are 2.85 percent of GDP, but some economists would like to see that at 3 percent. That sounds insignificantly fractional, but in nominal dollar terms, that .015 percent difference is $650 million.

Do we want to hasten the day when cancer is conquered, when new technology and alternative energy rule and global warming is a thing of the past? Thousands of jobs and significant contributions to GDP can be positively affected by increased R&D spending. Only the U.S. government has the financial muscle to deliver the means corporate America cannot always provide in a market economy.

Tax reform is long overdue for action, and it must close loopholes and raise revenues at the federal, state and local levels without further increases in rates.

Consider that the five major expenditures of all governments are: health care, pensions, defense, education and welfare. Add in interest on debt, and that is 80 percent of spending.

Those interest payments are a potential Achilles heel at all government levels. They could double over time as interest rates move up.

In response to the bestial events of Sandy Hook, I wish to see carefully constructed, sound legislation on gun control that leaves law-abiding citizens the right to own sporting arms.

I would hope for a significant tax on firearms to provide more support for mental health issues.

I wish for a ban on assault weapons and their large-capacity clips.

I see these deadly rifles only as Rambo-style phallic symbols, designed for one purpose — to kill human beings.

I wish to see my Republican party rescued from the fringe, one which owns up to the necessity to embrace a moderate domestic agenda, a vigorous foreign policy and 21st-century reality while staying true to core values of holding down the growth of government and celebrating work ethic and individual initiative.